With the busy holiday shopping season well underway, it comes as no surprise that a worldwide crackdown on websites suspected of selling counterfeit or pirated goods have been suspended - and in some cases seized - by authorities.

Earlier this month, PCeU announced they shut down approximately 2,000 .uk domains suspected of selling counterfeit goods ranging from Nike tennis shoes to Ugg Boots. In some cases customers weren’t delivered products they ordered online or the items they received were cheap knock-offs. The Met’s Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) stated they will be working closely with Nominet and other registrars to disable these types of websites leading up until the Christmas holiday.

Lesley Cowley, Nominet CEO said, ”.uk deserves its reputation as a trusted online space for British consumers, and we are committed to tackling cybercrime to keep it that way. The .uk domain name industry has come together to protect consumers and maintain their trust in the .uk internet space.”

Across the pond here in the United States, the Feds and ICE recently seized 150 domains that were suspected of selling a range of counterfeit goods including designer sunglasses, sports jerseys and electronics. All of the domains that were brought down in the US have had their webpage replaced with a message from the Department of Justice and Homeland Security pursuant to a seizure warrant under the authority of 18 U.S.c.

These website seizures were conducted as part of a CyberMonday crackdown called “Operation In Our Sites” to stop the sales of pirated or counterfeit goods online. Last year on Black Friday ICE seized 84 suspected websites, almost a double of seized websites year over year.

“Operation In Our Sites” has taken down 350 domains since inception and is an ongoing campaign to fight against the sale of counterfeit goods online in the United States.